4 - 4

Although he wasn't exactly to blame, the Student Council President's elongation of the conversation (which was supposed to be swift) resulted in more than half of the spots in the auditorium to be taken.

Now of course, in such a fine institution, there was no assigned seating or arrangement. Anyone could sit anywhere.

Surprisingly, even now in the 28th century, schools that followed the traditional method of designating seats for specific students were still bulked in quantity. Or, particularly, they were assigned seats corresponding to the class they received. Of course, everybody knew what class they got according to their scores, but students weren't able to apply that knowledge until the ceremony was over and they acquired their ID cards.

As a result, the seats were not organized in a specific fashion.

This was the ideal system that the academy used in order to allow students to have the sense of freedom they most rightfully deserved.

On the other hand, behind the scenes, there was a pattern.

The freshmen were separated in one major aspect to their status. Needless to say, this order was the lower class students and the higher class students, with the lower class students seated in the back and the higher class students seated in the front.

It was a subconscious arrangement.

It only made sense in the students' eyes: the privileged with the gift of receiving personal assistants specializing in Puppeteering deserved the closest seats to the stage, while the vestigial students, who didn't have such a privilege, nor the talent, deserved the seats farthest from the stage.

Of course, this arrangement was entirely noticeable.

In order to illustrate his acknowledgement of it, Vyrin carefully decided to not disrupt the system and seated himself among the lower class students.

As to not have to actively allow a student behind him to see the ceremony, Vyrin chose to seat himself in the seat closest to the entrance, and one of the farthest from the stage where the ceremony would soon take place.

Utilizing a console in the auditorium was prohibited, so Vyrin had to turn his eyes to the clock in the building. After examining it, he concluded that only five minutes was available until the ceremony was to begin.

His thoughts naturally flowed to what the freshman representative was doing to prepare. It was an impossibility to feel no stress before going out on stage, no matter the activity. After all, they were representing the freshmen of a nationally established academy of which was expected to produce results no matter the cost.

'This is an academy filled with elite Puppeteers. It isn't exactly flashy, but if even one of them discovers it...'

Vyrin's thoughts filled his head. His scarlet red eyes narrowed with concern and the expression he now wore was almost dangerous.

Of course, the auditorium, where hundreds of Puppeteers were stationed, was not the most ideal location for losing himself in his thoughts.

"Does it bother you, too?"

In the midst of the young man's mind wandering out of reality, a voice was heard. Assuming that it was directed to him, he roped his attention back into the real world and turned to the voice's source.

And indeed was that voice directed to him.

He was a slender male; around the same height as Vyrin but weighed around 10 pounds lighter than the latter due to the lack in muscular build.

Vyrin weighed 167 pounds in total, so relatively, the young man standing before him was slightly underweight.

His facial expression contained a mildly confused element as he gave a nervous smile and scratched the back of his head, looking around the auditorium in discomfort.

What made Vyrin puzzled was that this student chose to speak his thoughts to him, when there were plenty of other people to bug in the auditorium.

He gave the student a tiny smile as he replied to his comment. In all honesty, Vyrin had to resist a chuckle escaping from his mouth, for it was rather weird how this was the second unexpected individual he has had the experience of interacting with today.

By "unexpected", he found it odd that he would even be spoken to during or before the ceremony.

"I am not sure if it particularly 'bothers' me, but it is not as though I am indifferent to it."

Vyrin's reply was rather formal for a simple exchange of words between students of the same academy, especially on the day of the opening ceremony.

The words he chose and tone he adopted was hard to read, with the only aspect in clarity being his smile that was not in fact a smile.

The eyes of the student that approached him widened at first, which then squinted when he started to chuckle. His reaction to Vyrin's words was not specifically surprising given the way the latter spoke to the fellow student.

For Vyrin, on the other hand, he saw no reason for such feedback. Faint bewilderment danced across his face during the other party's response.

"Why are you so formal? My name is George Torence. I'm glad to find somebody in the same class as me, so pardon my rudeness."

'Torence?' Vyrin swiftly repeated in his head.

At his introduction, Vyrin's expression transformed into an effectively planted civilized arrangement. The introduced student who went by George Torence showed no signs of false innocence like the Student Council President outside of the building. Instead, his presence was gentle and gave Vyrin the impression that they were already old pals.

Yet, there was a minor disturbance in the back of his head.

This contrast to James' aura neutralized the tension in his shoulders. To meet the student's introduction, the seated young man pointed to the empty seat to his right (considering to his left was the wall containing the entrance) and maintained a polite attitude.

"The name's Vyrin Wellington. If you want, you can sit here."

Judging by George's uncomfortable expression that scanned the auditorium, it was safe to assume that the student either couldn't find an open seat, or was unable to feel comfortable sitting beside total strangers.

On the other hand, he couldn't help but get the small feeling that the student to whom he just shared his name wasn't *truly* a lower class student.

Taking this into account, Vyrin's thoughts quickly swirled within his head.

'Another Order? The Torence Family is famous for their prowess in Classic Puppeteering. Therefore, their uniqueness inevitably allows many Puppeteers to have information regarding their lineage. Yet, the name George does not ring a bell...'

Classic Puppeteering was the art of using the same internal energies as Modern Puppeteering, however instead of affecting external energies in the material world, Classic Puppeteering specialized in magnifying the manipulation of energies until spiritual energies and ethereal energies were affected. Due to this, invocation times were indeed increased as a result of the magnification, but in exchange, these invocations were exponentially more difficult to sense and react to.

Because the ethereal essences that lingered beyond the material world were controlled instead of physical substances, the average extrasensory perception that many Puppeteers possess wouldn't be capable of detecting the energy waves being emitted from the ethereal manipulations.

The inferiority of Classic Puppeteering was attempted to be displayed by the invention of Thread Holders (which could only form patterns effective for physical activity in the material world) and the continuity of artificially-constructed, or altered, Puppeteer brain stems, at least until the practice was forbidden.

Furthermore, thanks to the longer invocation time, it was quite simple to convince Puppeteers that Classic Puppeteering was unconditionally inferior to new-and-improved Modern Puppeteering.

Of course, the "unconditional" aspect was false.

The Torence Family refused this unwritten rule and aimed to change the world's view of Classic Puppeteering.

And that was precisely what they did.

Bearing the Fourth Order out of the 12, the Torence Family proved to contain power comparable to every other Order, even the Kreel Family to some degree, with only a special few remaining superior.

That being said, it was certainly unexpected to see a (most likely) collateral descendent of the Torence Family land not only as a lower class student, but a Class E student specifically. Identical to Vyrin's, George's chest was completely blank without an emblem, as well as a missing designated component in the collar.

Such a low class arrangement had to be negatively reflecting upon the Torence lineage, no doubt.

Given these circumstances, his awkwardness could have been explained, for he was indeed surrounded by Puppeteers that a great majority practiced particularly in Modern Puppeteering.

The Torence family member gave Vyrin a genuinely grateful smile, following with a thank you, and correspondingly taking up his offer.

Upon seating himself, the familiar sound of a feminine voice echoing through the auditorium was detected. The students fell silent within moments, with a few stragglers still struggling to find a seat.

"Hello students of the Partnered National Puppeteering Academy of the Eastern Gate! Welcome to our institution!..."

—————————————————————

Without the need to be surprised, the freshmen representative that produced the ceremony's reply address nailed it. Now, nobody, including Vyrin, really doubted their ability. Everyone was aware that the representative would never fumble at such a task.

The order in which they organized their speech, as well as the utilization of risky words in a proper manner in order to get a point across visibly moved the audience, inclusive of Vyrin and his new acquaintance, George, who seemed pretty "wowed".

Unfortunately, the features involving modesty, being easy on the eyes, and openly expressed would only bring the poor guy disorder probably until the next day.

In Vyrin's case, the freshmen representative named Aiden Lorenzo was none of his concern... at least for now.

At the moment, the distribution of the students' ID cards was being executed. Unsurprisingly, there was now a set organization of lines to obtain them, this time depending on gender.

Because of various, extreme events that occurred in the past in the academy, the use of gender-operated queues (which were separated by a wall) for accessing one's ID card was a necessity.

Vyrin did not want to know the said events.

Following the procedure needed of acquiring the pre-made ID cards, a crowd of first-years lingered in the hallway, sharing class information with friends and others just wondering what to do next.

Although the uniform itself displayed a scope of the classes the student could be in, only Class E students were able to be pinpointed due to the lack of collar design on the back, and the lack of a designated area for the emblem to even be placed on in the front.

For example, if a student had no emblem on their chest, then they had the possibility of being in Class C-3 all the way down to Class D-4, but if a student had no area *for* the emblem as well as missing detail on their collars, the student was unmistakably a Class E student, ranging from Class E-1 to Class E-4.

The academy had six class sets organized by letter, ranging from Class S to Class E. Each class set ranging from Class B to Class E contained four fixed-capacity subclasses, ranging from Class []-1 to Class []-4. Each of these subclasses held an exact total of 15 students, making 150 of the 300 freshmen lower class and vice-versa.

Disrupting the sequence, Class A contained five students per subclass due to the Puppeteers being on the brink of achieving a major step forward in their career, so large numbers were a hindrance to the learning capability of teenagers.

Also disrupting the sequence, Class S subclasses each contained 10 students from Class S-1 to Class S-4. Because half of the Class C set was lower class, Class A-1 to Class C-2 wouldn't meet the attendance quota.

Class S was reserved for Puppeteers who officially had the qualifications to move into a prestigious place in society, and thus did not necessarily need to pour their life into studies as much as Class A students. The individuals in Class S were treated like Domestic Megaversity of Puppeteering students in order for them to get a feel for their potential-future careers.

Yet, no matter the students' placement in the academy, be it even the lowest, their pride in being accepted into the prestigious institution was apparent.

No shame was displayed.

That was the globally adopted attitude in the 28th century.

Proceeding to subconsciously stay within Vyrin's vicinity, George's nervousness and awkward demeanor was incredibly illustrated all over his gait and expression.

He couldn't help but feel slight pity for the guy, despite the dude descending from one of the most renown lineages in history.

Unlike traditional education centers, there were no homeroom teachers. Such administrative resources would've hit the budget hard, thus the consoles handed out by the school for appropriate use were interconnected with the system that ran through the entire academy.

This also meant that no such individuals were around for assisting the students. Only those required, such as the Student Council, were selected to be necessary components in the fine establishment.

Unnaturally, homerooms weren't used for the actual practices, contrasting to the normal method of education. Instead, they were established in order to contain a certain number of people if students concluded their practicalities with time to spare.

Needless to point out, detention was a frequent "activity".

The terminal system allowed individuals varying in features, lineage, interests, and other aspects to mingle with one another fluidly.

Students these days bonded more frequently, tighter than ever before in history, and the elimination of homeroom teachers was the closest connection to it.

So it stuck.

Vyrin and George managed to weave their way through the crowd into a semi-open area, which was still sprinkled with students however not as densely as the space near the entrance.

So far, George seemed to be the only student that Vyrin had interacted with, since the Student Council President wasn't technically a student, more like an executive.

Keeping that in mind, he decided to request the Torence's class he was assigned to. After the student took a quick glance at the ID card in his hand, Vyrin blinked hard when he realized that he didn't even begin looking at it yet.

'He was probably too busy trying to stay close to me,' Vyrin thought with a helpless expression.

When the two Class E students read the subclasses they were assigned to, a mix of relief and tension rose up in Vyrin's throat.

By pure coincidence, the two students landed in Class E-1.

Slumping over with a smile and letting out a sigh, George placed his hand on Vyrin's shoulder, giving him a wink as he spoke to him rather openly and without the awkwardness from before.

It appeared that the student's looming shadow of uncertainty had been lifted.

Vyrin subconsciously knew that he was the reason. In other words, without founding a proper friendship with him, George would most likely fall apart in the academy.

He wasn't exactly fond of becoming someone else's guideline... however he had no choice in the matter.

'What a hassle,' he said plainly in his head, wearing a dull expression.

"I can't wait. I've been dreaming about attending this academy."

Spontaneously, after George's comment, a dangerous aura struck Vyrin right in the base of his neck. The unusually evil tone that his new acquaintance had adopted was of somebody not in their right mind.

With a glance, he could see the unhealthily sinister facial illustration that the appeared-to-be "friendly, well rounded classmate" was making.

Restraining the urge to lurch back away from the student, Vyrin maintained an expression of negative surprise, simply watching his classmate stare into space like a lunatic.

It was an unsaid guarantee that all Puppeteers had their unorthodox features.

Unfortunately, Vyrin didn't take George's potential of having one into account.

An unlucky misfortune.

'I can finally accumulate the information to find him, Mother," George thought ominously. 'I will do everything in my power to destroy that man, and I will slaughter anyone who stands in my way.'

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Notes:

- Class Set Chart

• Class S-1: 10 students

• Class S-2: 10 students

• Class S-3: 10 students

• Class S-4: 10 students

• Class A-1: 5 students

• Class A-2: 5 students

• Class A-3: 5 students

• Class A-4: 5 students

[Classes B-1 to E-4 contain 15 students per subclass]

• Key

—>'Every word in these apostrophes are the thoughts of the selected individual'

—> *Every word in these asterisks is emphasized as in italicization*